Sangamon County, Illinois Circuit Judge John Belz issued a temporary restraining order halting the governor's order forcing pharmacists to dispense the Plan B and other abortion-inducing drugs.
-- From "Ill. can't force dispensing 'morning-after' pill" Associated Press 4/6/09
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled in December that the pharmacists' case must be heard. The court decided then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who issued a rule in 2005 ordering pharmacies to dispense the so-called "morning-after" pill, had made statements indicating there would be no exceptions.
Belz is the same judge who sided with the state and dismissed the lawsuit filed in 2005 by Luke VanderBleek and Glenn Kosirog, who own five northern Illinois pharmacies between them.
"You cannot enact a law that targets people because of their religious objection," Manion said Monday.
The restraining order applies only to VanderBleek's and Kosirog's pharmacies. But Francis Manion of the American Center for Law and Justice, which is representing the pharmacists, doubts the state would enforce the rule elsewhere before the case is decided.
Manion expects a hearing Belz's court in June.
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